biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1703–91)
|
| biography:
| Evangelist and founder of Methodism, born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, EC England, UK. He studied at Oxford, was ordained deacon (1725) and priest (1728), and in 1726 became a fellow at Oxford and lecturer in Greek. Influenced by the spiritual writings of William Law, he became leader of a small group which had gathered round his brother Charles, nicknamed the Methodists, a name later adopted by John for the adherents of the great evangelical movement which was its outgrowth. On their father's death, the brothers went as missionaries to Georgia (1735–8), but the mission proved a failure. In 1738, at a meeting in London, during the reading of Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans, he experienced an assurance of salvation which convinced him that he must bring the same assurance to others; but his zeal alarmed most of the parish clergy, who closed their pulpits against him. This drove him into the open air at Bristol (1739), where he founded the first Methodist Chapel, and then the Foundry at Moorfields, London, which became their headquarters. His life was frequently in danger, but he outlived all persecution, and the itineraries of his old age were triumphal processions throughout the country. He was a prolific writer, producing grammars, histories, biographies, collections of hymns, his own sermons and journals, and a magazine. |
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